benberg2013

Flew recently Malaysia Airlines from Manila to KUL, in business, ticket booked with BA avios. When I checked in , the agent said because you are OW sapphire, you can go to the lounge. I said, "What, and business not?" She said, your ticket is U class, dd you pay for your ticket? U class doesn't get access to lounge."
That's a new one for me. Is it only MH who do this?
Not that I care, because the contract lounge MH uses was overcrowded and just bad, so I used my priority pass to go to the PP lounge. Much more spacious and much more facilities and food.

MSPeconomist

I flew on an international MH award ticket (using DL miles) in business class a few days after MH370 disappeared. At that time, there was no issue using the lounges (IIRC twice in the KUL international terminal) without status on MH or oneworld, although I did have top tier status with DL.

Globalist

Fare class should not be the determining factor of lounge access.

1. Actual cabin class
2. Frequent Flyer status

That said, the MH lounge in MNL is a 3rd party lounge so rules might be applied at will.

Globalist

freddo

Redeemed many tickets before, for self and family. Never had an issue with lounge access on biz redemption, even when my family traveled without me (sans status)

TPJ

THis is definitely against oneWorld rules...

Guy Betsy

I think the check in agent was just stupid and ignorant. It doesn't matter what booking class you are in, you are in Business Class. That's it ! Even if you're on an AD / ID ticket, they should not treat you any different. I think they're Contract Staff.

dkc192

The only instance I can imagine in which a J pax would be denied lounge access is if he/she was op-upped to J and did not have the applicable status to enter the lounge as a Y pax.

Rami Tamimi

This is not entirely true.ID/AD tickets don't normally get lounge access (depends on the airline).

There are ways around the OW rules. If the airline wants to sell a J seat without J class lounge access,they can sell the ticket and use (for example) U class,which would be defined as Economy class for all purposes but you would get a 100% guarantee of an upgrade to J. This technique is used a lot in some countries,where firms might not care about the ticket cost,as long as it is not J class (Y only travel policy). So as far as oneworld is concerned you have a Y ticket and don't get access.

Also OP's lounge refusal (if he was not OWS) is not against OW rules in any case,as they (the rules) clearly exclude the third party lounges,so MH does not actually have to provide access to him as a J pax and/or as OWS if they so wish. I am only talking about technicalities here,not about customer service part.

S7 does it with their brand new "NFC" fares and sell Business Class tickets with no lounge access (they warn you about it during the booking process) and those tickets are way cheaper than "normal" J class tickets. They also don't give you access if you AUP (airport upgrade). In both cases you are allowed to override this with OWS/OWE card and gain access.Also in both cases the fare basis would reveal that you are on a ticket that does not allow lounge access. I beleive that they code those as economy for oneworld purposes,hence not violating alliance rules.


That said,I don't think this is what happened in OP's case,I think it is simply the case of the agent confusing staff travel (ID ticket)with award ticket,hence the question "did you pay for your ticket".They are often coded in the same fare bucket. We have not [so far] heard of any changes/restrictions in regards to award tickets on MH.

benberg2013

Thanks Rami. Good info there.

moondog

+1. Very good post, Rami

benberg2013

As usual